“I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success . . .”

~ Nikola Tesla

By Mary O’KEEFE

That anxious, proud, positive and terrified feeling of the inventor was evident at Jet Propulsion Laboratory last week at its annual Invention Challenge.

The engineering competition sets out a challenge to students and invites them to JPL where they compete with other students and professional engineers and scientists.

Each year schools from around the nearby area compete, and often there are students who come from across the country; however, this year one group of kids traveled over 9,000 miles to compete.

The foundation of the trip actually started several years ago when Dogan Aykurt was a university student in Turkey. He participated in the Istanbul Invention Challenge in Turkey. That challenge followed the same rules as the JPL Invention Challenge.

“I was with my teacher and now I am a volunteer teacher in Tanzania,” he said.

Aykurt contacted JPL and was able to arrange for his students, ages 11 to 13, to make the long trip to La Cañada. The students attend the Feza Boys School of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

“Now I am not a student but [a teacher]. I have good students and this is a good opportunity for them,” he said.

This year’s theme, “Don’t Waste a Drop,” required students to move 250 grams of water and a 3-D printed goldfish from a plastic cup to a larger water vessel. The challenges were many: getting systems of weights and pulleys to move smoothly; making sure cups didn’t tilt too far or spill too much water; and even preventing the goldfish from breaking, which resulted in disqualification, according to a JPL statement.

“Now in its 19th year, the Invention Challenge has inspired former participants to recreate the competition in their home countries,” stated Paul MacNeal, a JPL mechanical systems engineer and the contest’s organizer.

The Tanzania students did not have all the equipment required for the challenge but, in typical JPL fashion, engineers and student engineers all worked together to help the team.

Teams came up with creative names and designs for their inventions. Some inventions worked as planned, some did not work quite like was planned but the challenge was met by all with a sense of discovery and fun.

By the end there were two winning teams from Oakwood High School in North Hollywood, named Oakwood No. 1 and No. 2, and Los Angeles High School’s team Diamond. There were also awards presented for the most creative, unusual and artistic.

“Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.” ~ Nikola Tesla

  Mary Okeefe